Using the Reality Interview improves the accuracy of the Criteria‐Based Content Analysis and Reality Monitoring

Active interviewing approaches can exploit the verbal differences between truthtellers and liars, thus improving detecting deception. One such method is the Reality Interview (RI) aimed to facilitate recall from truthtellers, while increasing the difficulty for liars. This study investigated whether the RI could improve the diagnostic accuracy of the Reality Monitoring and the Criteria‐Based Content Analysis. Liars and truthtellers were either asked to freely recall an event or interviewed with the RI. As hypothesized, the RI improved the discriminability of Reality Monitoring and Criteria‐Based Content Analysis over Free Recall. Honest responses were longer, and the RI increased the word count difference between honest and false statements. However, after correcting for word count, results were no longer significant, showing its importance for deception detection. Nonetheless, the RI increased verbal differences between truthtellers and liars, demonstrating that using the RI with verbal credibility assessment tools is a powerful combination for investigative interviewing.     

Using an Example Statement Increases Information but Does Not Increase Accuracy of CBCA,RM, and SCAN

Verbal credibility assessment methods are frequently used in the criminal justice system to investigate the truthfulness of statements. Three of these methods are Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA), Reality Monitoring (RM), and Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN). The aim of this study is twofold. First, we investigated the diagnostic accuracy of CBCA, RM, and especially SCAN. Second, we tested whether giving the interviewee an example of a detailed statement can enhance the diagnostic accuracy of these verbal credibility methods. To test the latter, two groups of participants were requested to write down one true and one fabricated statement about a negative event. Prior to this request, one group received a detailed example statement, whereas the other group received no additional information. Results showed that CBCA and RM scores differed between true and fabricated statements, whereas SCAN scores did not. Giving a detailed example statement did not lead to better discrimination between truth tellers and liars for any of the methods but did lead to the participants producing significantly longer statements. The implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using a Gain/Loss Framework to Measure Impact: The Perceived Impact of Life Event Scale

The author describes three interconnected investigations focused on the development and psychometric evaluation of the Perceived Impact of Life Event Scale (PILES), a measure developed using a gain/loss framework for assessing the multidimensional impact of single life events. In Study 1 (N = 160), the author describes the item generation process and results of a pilot study. In Study 2 (N = 244), exploratory factor analysis suggested a 29-item scale with the four following gain/loss factors: existential, discretionary time, romantic relationship/sexual, and career and employment. In Study 3 (N = 244), confirmatory factor analysis indicated a three-factor model (26-item scale), and findings suggested convergent validity of the measure.     

The consistency of false suggestions moderates children's reports of a single instance of a repeated event: predicting increases and decreases in suggestibility

Participants (6- and 7-year-olds, N=130) participated in classroom activities four times. Children were interviewed about the final occurrence (target event) either 1 week or 4 weeks later, during which half of the event items were described inaccurately. Half of these suggestions were consistent with the theme of the detail across the occurrences (e.g., always sat on a kind of floor mat) or were inconsistent (e.g., sat on a chair). When memory for the target event was tested 1 day later, children falsely recognized fewer inconsistent suggestions than consistent suggestions, especially compared with a control group of children who experienced the event just one time. Furthermore, the longer delay reduced accuracy only for consistent suggestions. Source-monitoring ability was strongly and positively related to resistance to suggestions, and encouraging children to identify the source of false suggestions allowed them to retract a significant proportion of their reports of inconsistent suggestions but not of consistent suggestions. The results suggest that the gist consistency of suggestions determines whether event repetition increases or decreases suggestibility.     

Children's suggestibility for an instance of a repeated event versus a unique event: the effect of degree of association between variable details

Are children who experience an event repeatedly more suggestible about an instance of the event than children who experience it once? Researchers have answered this question both in the affirmative and in the negative. In this study, we hypothesized that the degree of association between details that changed across instantiations of the event would help to explain the discrepancy. Preschoolers (4- and 5-year-olds) and first graders (6- and 7-year-olds) participated in either a single play session or four repeated play sessions, each of which contained 16 critical details. Across play sessions in the repeat-event condition, half of the critical details were associated and half were not associated. During a biasing interview 2 weeks later, children were misinformed about half of the critical details. The next day, children answered free and cued recall questions about the target play session. Among older children, repeat-event participants were more suggestible than single-event participants, especially for high-association details. Among younger children, repeat-event participants were more suggestible than single-event participants for low-association details. Consistent with some current theories of children's memory, older children were more suggestible than younger children.     

Assessment of Panic Frequency: Reliability and Validity of a Time-Line Follow-Back Method

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a Panic Attack Frequency Calendar (PAFC), modeled after a time-line follow-back (TLFB) procedure (e.g., Sobell & Sobell, 1979). The latter has been used for years to reliably and validly assess daily alcohol use through self-report over extended periods of time. Seventy-four adult individuals (ages 18–57) who had experienced a panic attack within the past 2 weeks completed a battery of self-report questionnaires, including retrospective frequency measures, and were administered an 8-week PAFC initially and a 10-week PAFC 2 weeks later. Half the participants self-monitored their panic attacks in a diary. The PAFC showed high stability over 2 weeks across several panic behavior variables. The PAFC was also shown to be a valid instrument in assessing panic frequency when compared with panic data obtained from the diary and the retrospective frequency measure.     

Creating state of the art,next-generation Virtual Reality exposure therapies for anxiety disorders using consumer hardware platforms: design considerations and future directions

Decades of research and more than 20 randomized controlled trials show that Virtual Reality exposure therapy (VRET) is effective in reducing fear and anxiety. Unfortunately, few providers or patients have had access to the costly and technical equipment previously required. Recent technological advances in the form of consumer Virtual Reality (VR) systems (e.g. Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear), however, now make widespread use of VRET in clinical settings and as self-help applications possible. In this literature review, we detail the current state of VR technology and discuss important therapeutic considerations in designing self-help and clinician-led VRETs, such as platform choice, exposure progression design, inhibitory learning strategies, stimuli tailoring, gamification, virtual social learning and more. We illustrate how these therapeutic components can be incorporated and utilized in VRET applications, taking full advantage of the unique capabilities of virtual environments, and showcase some of these features by describing the development of a consumer-ready, gamified self-help VRET application for low-cost commercially available VR hardware. We also raise and discuss challenges in the planning, development, evaluation, and dissemination of VRET applications, including the need for more high-quality research. We conclude by discussing how new technology (e.g. eye-tracking) can be incorporated into future VRETs and how widespread use of VRET self-help applications will enable collection of naturalistic “Big Data” that promises to inform learning theory and behavioral therapy in general.     

Perceived Event Frequency and the Optimistic Bias: Evidence for a Two-Process Model of Personal Risk Judgments

People often judge themselves to be at lower risk for various negative life events than are their peers. The two empirical studies presented here show that the magnitude of this optimistic bias can be either negatively or positively related to the perceived frequency of the event, depending on whether people judge their own risk relative to that of an average peer (make comparative risk judgments) or judge their own and an average peer's risk separately (make absolute risk judgments). A new two-process model is presented to account for these results. The model combines a better-than-average heuristic with elements of the singular target-focused and singular- distributional models of Klar and colleagues (Klar & Giladi, 1997, 1999; Klar, Medding, & Sarel, 1996). The empirical results and model have many implications for the study of personal risk judgments, the optimistic bias, and risk-taking behavior.     

Variability in the Functions of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Evidence From Three Real-Time Monitoring Studies

Despite functional models of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) helping to explain why people engage in this perplexing behavior, we still lack an understanding of some of the key properties of NSSI functions. Here, we address three unanswered questions about NSSI functions: how much do distinct NSSI functions (1) vary between people over time, (2) vary within people over time, and (3) simultaneously co-occur over time? Data were drawn from three ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies of self-injurious adult psychiatric outpatients (n = 7), community-based adolescents (n = 15), and community-based adults (n = 9). Across the three studies, there was a total of 271 NSSI episodes (all with corresponding functions captured by EMA). The vast majority (27 of 31; 87%) of participants exhibited unique patterns of NSSI functions during the monitoring periods, indicating high variability between people. The vast majority (26 of 31; 84%) of participants also showed changes in NSSI functions over time, indicating high variability within people. Although it was most common for only one function to be reported for a given NSSI episode, participants endorsed more than one function for 22% to 43% of NSSI episodes, indicating that different functions did simultaneously co-occur. These results underscore that reinforcement processes for NSSI differ from person-to-person, and are both time-varying and multifaceted, which has implications for personalized assessment and treatment of this clinical phenomenon.     

Life Events and Prosocial Behaviors Among Young Adults: Considering the Roles of Perspective Taking and Empathic Concern

The authors examined the altruism born of suffering model in a culturally diverse sample of young adults. They hypothesized that major life events would interact with perspective taking to predict empathic concern, which would predict multiple types of prosocial behaviors among young adults. The sample included 202 young adults (M age = 20.94?years; 76.5% girls; 36.5% White, 50.5% Latino) who reported on their exposure to major life events, perspective taking and empathic responding, and tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Life events indirectly, positively predicted prosocial behaviors via empathic concern. Empathic concern and perspective taking also interacted to predict empathic responding. The results demonstrated links that support the altruism born of suffering model, suggesting that life stressors might not always be negative and might promote resilience and social connection among young adults under specific conditions.     

Let's Ask the Homeless People Themselves: A Needs Assessment Based on a Probability Sample of Adults

A probability sample of 301 homeless adults from Buffalo, NY, was followed over 6 months to document the utilization of a variety of community services, examine services desired, and identify factors associated with service utilization, preference, and satisfaction. The following needs were all rated as at least equally important as the need for affordable housing: safety, education, transportation, medical/dental treatment, and job training/placement (most of these needs were also rated as difficult to obtain). Needs for formal mental health and substance abuse services were rated as relatively unimportant and easy to obtain, and for those who actually used them, respondents were often dissatisfied with them. Of 16 predictor variables examined in multivariate analyses, several showed consistent relationships with subsequent service use, preference, and satisfaction. Younger adults, persons of color, those with dependent children, and persons having fewer social supports reported less service utilization, less satisfaction with services received, different perceived needs for particular services, and/or greater difficulty obtaining services.     

Memory for Frequency of Bizarre and Common Stimuli: Limitations of the Automaticity Hypothesis

In 2 experiments, the influence of intention to process frequency on accuracy of memory for frequency of bizarre and common sentences was investigated. The results from multiple regression analyses indicated that intentional processing increased the accuracy of frequency judgments when memory for frequency was tested after a 2-min (Experiment 1) and after a 48-hr (Experiment 2) retention interval. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 2 indicated that unintentional processors tended to overestimate frequencies of bizarre relative to common items after a delay. The implications of the results are discussed with regard to L. Hasher and R. T. Zacks's (1984) automaticity hypothesis, human performance, and the accuracy of judgments of frequency of occurrence of unusual events.     

An Initial Investigation of the Factor-Analytic Structure of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised With a Volunteer Firefighter Sample

We provide an initial evaluation of the factor structure of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) when used with a volunteer firefighter and a similar community participant sample. A volunteer firefighter sample (n = 65) and a sample of similar community respondents (n = 103) completed a questionnaire study, including responses to the IES-R. The IES-R data from both groups were entered into a three-factor principal components analysis with direct oblimin rotation. We found further support for the validity of the IES-R when used with a community sample. However, our data suggested that when using the IES-R with a community sample, the choice between a two- and a three-factor model may depend on the composition of the participants. For volunteer firefighters, the factor-analytic structure of the IES-R appeared to be similar to that of the community sample, with more scatter in terms of item loadings. To our knowledge, there is no previous research considering the use of the IES-R with a strictly volunteer firefighter sample. In addition, despite adequate research on the factor-analytic structure of the original IES, little research has considered the factor-analytic structure of the more recent IES-R, even with community samples.     

Assessing the Behavior of Girls: What We See and What We Miss

Three standardized measures of child and adolescent behavior are reviewed for their attention to issues salient in the experiences of girls in late childhood and adolescence (ages 12 to 18; American; American and Brown & Gilligan 1992). The Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form (Achenbach and Achenbach), the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992), and the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990) are analyzed. Challenges to psychologists in schools for including the experiences of girls in the knowledge base grounding their practice and research are articulated.     

Assessing volunteer motives: a comparison of an open‐ended probe and Likert rating scales

The purpose of the present study was to compare the motives of volunteers (career, esteem, protective, social, understanding, and value) as assessed by an open‐ended probe and the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) which employs a Likert rating scale. One‐hundred‐and‐twenty‐nine individuals, who volunteered for an organization that focuses on episodic volunteering in the community, completed both measures of volunteer motives and reported their frequency of volunteering for the organization. The Spearman rank correlation between the rankings of the six volunteer motives in the two distributions was 0.71. The maximum variance shared between the same motive as assessed by the two methods was 0.14. Frequency of volunteering for the organization was predicted by the value (positive predictor) and social (negative predictor) VFI scale scores. A post hoc analysis of the data from the open‐ended probe revealed three additional motives for volunteering—enjoyment, religiosity, and team building. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing PTSD in the military: Validation of a scale distributed to Danish soldiers after deployment since 1998

Since 1998, soldiers deployed to war zones with the Danish Defense (≈31,000) have been invited to fill out a questionnaire on post‐mission reactions. This provides a unique data source for studying the psychological toll of war. Here, we validate a measure of PTSD‐symptoms from the questionnaire. Soldiers from two cohorts deployed to Afghanistan with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2009 (ISAF7, N = 334) and 2013 (ISAF15, N = 278) filled out a standard questionnaire (Psychological Reactions following International Missions, PRIM) concerning a range of post‐deployment reactions including symptoms of PTSD (PRIM‐PTSD). They also filled out a validated measure of PTSD‐symptoms in DSM‐IV, the PTSD‐checklist (PCL). We tested reliability of PRIM‐PTSD by estimating Cronbach's alpha, and tested validity by correlating items, clusters, and overall scale with corresponding items in the PCL. Furthermore, we conducted two confirmatory factor analytic models to test the factor structure of PRIM‐PTSD, and tested measurement invariance of the selected model. Finally, we established a screening and a clinical cutoff score by application of ROC analysis. We found high internal consistency of the PRIM‐PTSD (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88; both cohorts), strong item‐item (0.48–0.83), item‐cluster (0.43–0.72), cluster‐cluster (0.71–0.82) and full‐scale (0.86–0.88) correlations between PRIM‐PTSD and PCL. The factor analyses showed adequate fit of a one‐factor model, which was also found to display strong measurement invariance across cohorts. ROC curve analysis established cutoff scores for screening (sensitivity = 1, specificity = 0.93) and clinical use (sensitivity = 0.71, specificity = 0.98). In conclusion, we find that PRIM‐PTSD is a valid measure for assessing PTSD‐symptoms in Danish soldiers following deployment.     

Assessing the quality of life of HIV infected persons: Clinical and descriptive information from studies with the hopes

Abstract

We have recently developed and psychometrically evaluated an HIV-specific quality of life instrument. The new instrument is called the HIV Overview of Problems-Evaluation System (HOPES) which was adapted from an established cancer-specific quality of life instrument called the CARES. In this paper we review the psychometric properties of the HOPES, examine the quality of life impact of HIV infection in a cross-sectional evaluation of 318 patients using data from the HOPES and describe other work in progress or planned using the HOPES.     

Assessing Representations of Close Relationships Among Chinese and Japanese Adolescents and Young Adults: Commonalities and Differences in the Two Confucian Cultures

This article proposed an affective relationships model with its assessment instrument and examined how Chinese and Japanese adolescents and young adults construct mental representations of their close relationships, and the influence of Confucian cultural beliefs on these representations. The participants were 1,565 students aged 14 to 24 years living in China or Japan. The students were asked about their relationships with four figures: mother, father, closest friend, and romantic partner. We found that: (a) adolescents and young adults in both cultures constructed constellations of relationships containing multiple figures, and they articulated reasons for each figure's significance; and (b) there were between-group differences in the relationships with the father and the romantic partner for Chinese versus Japanese adolescents and young adults. These differences were partly explained by the influence of Confucianism on the Chinese participants’ cultural beliefs that retained the patriarchal values.